Petess



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIGE.

EDWARD H. KNIGHT, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVEMENT iN GOVERNORS.

Spocicution forming part of Letters Patent No. 59,412, dated November 6, 1866.

To all whom fit mii/y concern:

Beit known that I, EDWARD H. KNIGHT, of Washington, in the District of Columbia, United States, have made neur and useful Improvements in Governors; and I do hereby declare the following to be e full, clear, and exact description of the nature, construction, and operation of the same, suiiicient to enable one skilled in the art to which it appertains to construct and use the same, reference being.

had to the accompanying drawings, which are mode part of this speciiication, and in which- Figure l is a front elevation. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are detached views of modified form of my improvement.

I suspend the governor ball or balls from a spindle or spindles, which have an automatic adjustment in a horizontal plane as the balls fly outwardly under the impulse derived from their revolution. The partial rotation of the spindle imparts motion to a plate or other object, which in turn com municates with the valve which determines the area of steam-opening.

The means hy which the rotation of the spindie may be made to ei'ect the motion required may be a thread, threads, or worm upon the spindle or spindles, which traverse counterpart hollow screws in the plate or plates, as in Figs. 3 4, and 5; or the means may consist, ss iu Elige. 1 and 2, of an inclined plane or groove in or upon a piece attached to 'the spindle, the said incline actuating a plate which communicates with the steam-valve in any suitable .'.lhe invention in my other specification of improvement in governors (markedA) consists in making the axis from which the governorhalls is suspended adjustable in a horizontal plane, so that the arm carrying the ball may be free to rise in such a vertical plane or in such curve as may be induced by the Aspeed and proportions of the parts.

In Case A it is the vertical motion of the governor-balLt-hat is utilized in producing on effective action upon the plete connected to the throttle-valve, the horizontal adjustment of the spindle from which the hall is suspended serving to give the ball freedom of motion, which diminishes friction and gives sensitiveness to the governor, as is therein explained.

In the governor, the subject of this speciiication, the rotary motion of the spindle from which the governor-ball is suspended is made to aotuate the devices which control the steamvalve opening, while the vertical motion of the ball is not directly utilized. As the speed increases the ball will fly upwardly and outwardly. In my Oase A its upward motion is utilized and its outward permitted. In the present case (B) its outward is utilized and its upward permitted in Figs. 1, 2, and 5, and both upward and outward are utilized in Figs. 3, 4, as v rill appear more clearly in the description following.

When the ball suspended from o. certain point on a horizontally-revolving arm is revolved around the vertical axis, its first tendency is to lag behind, its suspension causing it not to a preeiate completely and immediately the orce of the revolving power. As the speed increases the ball will rise more and more, nearly approaehin g a position on a level,

with its point of suspension, but never reaching that elevation. The arm, however, with. increase of speed will assume a position more nearly approaching the radial as the ball rises in a curve of gradually increasing radius upwardly and outwardly.

In the ordinary form of governory the bells have been permitted to rise as well as they could, and to such heightas they could attain, but it has been under the unfavorable condition of confinement in a prescribed path. This improvement is intended (as is also my application A) to secure greater freedom of operetion and sensitiveness, by permitting the motion of the governor-balls in such direction as may be induced by their speed and proportions, and utilizing their motion by transmission through suitable mechanical devices to the steam-valve which governs the crea of steam-opening.

In the drawings, in Figs. l and 2, A represents the stendardnpon Whichthe moving portions are supported. B is' a shaft which derives its motion from the engine, end by means of the wheels G D-rotates the vertical shaft E, and with it the plates F G, from which the gcvernonhelis H are suspended by arms I and spindles or carriages K, `which have c capacity for horizontal adjstment or partial rotation in their sockets when the balls move outward or inward under changes of speed in the engine. When the spindles K and the boxes L,

attached thereto, are thus rotated the T-heads of the upper spindles M are caused to traverse the inclined grooves in the boxes, which elevates or deprcsscs the plate G, as the said T- heads ascend or descend in the grooves.

The upper spindles M are attached to the plate G, and their vertical motion is commu* nicated to the throttle-valve by means of a forked and pivoted leverarln, which clasps the glandN, or in any other suitable manner.

In Figs. l and 2, which are elevations from diii'erent points ol" view ot' the same form oi' governor, although the plates F G revolve together with the axis E, the plate G is connected by a feather, so as to have a capacity for vertical adjustment under the circumstances detailed of change of speed of the drivin g-power.

In Fig. 5, instead of a box, L, whose enlarged diameter permits a given pitch without making the inclined plane too steep, the thread is placed immediately upon the spindles K M, which occupy corresponding threaded sockets in the plates F G, so that as the balls fly outwardly the spindles K M rotate and cause the plate G to rise and recede from the plate F by the sum of the vertical distances traversed by the spindles K M in their respective sockets.

As the revolving plate F is a fixture as regards change inthe vertical position, the screwspindle K climbs in the plate F, raising the plate G to that extent, while the plate G rises by the same impulse on the spindle M, so that the actual rise of the plate G is equal to the sum of the longitudinal motion of the spindles in their screw-sockets.

The short post s on the plate F, Fig. 5, stops the revolution of the spindles by the contact ofthe spur t on the latter with the post. This is for the purpose of stopping the downward motion ot' the spindle, so that it may stop at the right place, permitting' the arm of the governor-ball to swing taugentially to the circle of revolution of its point of suspension at the moment of its start.

Fig. 3 represents a ball suspended by an arm from a slotted cam, which is pivoted to a carriage, K, which has a partial rotation on a ver tical axis in the plate F as the ball swings outwardly, the upper spindle M rotating in the plate G and the screw on the said spindle causing the plate G to rise when rotated in the proper direction. At the upper part of the governor-arm is a slotted cam, P, in which traverses a pin at the lower part of the spindle M. As the ball H rises in starting or with increment of speed, the pin at the end of the spindle M traverses in the slot, and is thereby raised, owing to the character of the curved slot, the end r of the slot being farther from the pivot in the carriage K than the end n1, which is occupied by the pin when at rest.

Thus it will be seen in Fig. il that when the ball rises and moves outwardly, both ol" which motions will naturally follow an increase or' speed, the plate G will be raised by the revolution of the screw-spindle M therein, and also by the slotted cam l), the raising of G being duc to both and equal. to the sum oi" these infiuences--that is, the rising ofthe ball and its outward motion-which causes the spindles to revolve.

In Fig. 4 is shown a combination-the union ofthe slotted cam P (shown in Fig. 3) and the two screw-spindles, (shown in Fig. 5.) In the latter figure the screws have a combined etfect upon the movable plate G, and the motion of these screws is due to the outward motion of the ball, not the upward, for that is free in its bearing at w and does not affect the plate G.

In Fig. 3 one oi" the spindles has a thread upon it, which raises the plate G as the ball llies outwardly, and a slotted cam, P, which raises the plateG an additional amount as the ball rises, the cam P rotating on its pivot in the spindle K.

In Fig. 4 the motion of the plate G is ed'ected by the rotation of the two spindles K M, and also by the rotation in a vertical plane of the slotted cam P, so that these motions, all tending in the same direction, are brought to bear to produce the eifect, which in this ease is to depress the plate G and cause it to approach the plate F.

I have shown in this Fig. 4 the plate G as depressed by the increment of motion of the balls. It is immaterial, so far as the invention is concerned, whether the plate F is raised or lowered, as, a motion being generated, it can be convenientlytransmitted to the steam-valve by any suitable mechanical eontrivance in a manner familiar to those acquainted with this class of machinery.

Having described my invention, whatI claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A governor having its ball or balls suspended from vertical spindles whose partial rotation is caused to actuate a valve and control the area of steam-opening. l

2. The combination, with said partially-rotating spindles, of a cam or curved toe, which is partially rotated by the vertical motion of the ball.

EDWARD H. KNIGHT.

Writnesses:

ALEX. A. C. KLAUGKE, CHAs. A. PETTIT. 

